The cabinet hardware we currently have has always struck me as ugly. It almost looked like something that came from a 70s or 80s obsession with everything cowboy.

I tried to imagine how they would look once the kitchen was redone, for we will be having kind of a black and white theme going on, and these cabinets (original to the house) will be painted white. Sure, I’d love to get new cabinets. But, ah, there’s a little bit of a price issue there.

So the other day I was browsing through my new bible — a 1957 Sears catalog that I snagged off eBay, and lo and behold, I find this:

Turns out that the ugly arrows are original to the house. Argh! How I wanted to get rid of them and replace them with chrome, but now I’m rethinking it. (Just for the record, we do NOT have the hinges with the straps. Thank god for that; it would be entirely too much.) No surprise, these are “Early American” style — back when people weren’t sure whether to decorate with a modern flair or cling to the days of yore, so they tended to do a little bit of both.

So, where did you find new versions or old versions of this that you can use on the holes as drilled. Mine are 3 inch centers and we need a few new ones, and the replica types at Home Depot are 3 1/4 inch. The scale is not the same. If you can help……….

You might have some luck on eBay trying to find some replacements. Is there a big difference between the 3 and the 3 1/4″? Can you really tell the difference if you aren’t looking at them very hard? For now, keep watching eBay, or also keep your eye on Rejuvenation, as they have been coming out with some great retro cabinet hardware lately. You might be out of on luck on the 3 1/4 spread, though. Hardly anything uses that spread anymore. Frustrating, I know!